Frank
Simons

Overview

Frank combines excellent legal skills with in-depth experience of the IT and Telecoms sectors.

Frank is a senior counsel in our Commercial and Regulatory Practices and is based in The Hague.

As a member of our Tech & Comms Group, he focuses primarily on telecommunications, IT and data protection law and advises clients on various regulatory requirements as well as on contracts with a strong regulatory component. Frank acts for clients in legal proceedings before various courts and regulators. Specific subjects include spectrum licensing, data centre and network infrastructure projects, ex-ante market regulation, security and law enforcement, satellite regulation and data protection with specific attention for telecoms and ehealth data privacy implications.

Before joining us in 2008, Frank worked as analyst and project manager for a large European telecommunications provider in the UK and the Netherlands. His involvement in large scale telecommunications and IT projects has provided Frank with an in depth knowledge of his clients’ markets, technology and operational environments.

Frank is co-author of the chapter on spectrum regulation in the leading Dutch handbook ' Text and Commentary: Telecommunications Law' and regularly publishes in legal journals. He is amongst others a member of the Dutch Association for Media and Communication Law (VMC) and the Dutch Association for Information Technology and Law (NVvIR).

News & Events

At the end of August, a number of draft Guidelines and draft National Standards were published by the National Information Security Standardisation Technical Committee, one of which is a revision of the draft Guidelines on Security Assessment for Data Export which was first published in May 2017.

Data is essential to any successful modern franchise. Online sales, electronic and mobile marketing, and advances in analytics offer exciting opportunities for franchisors and franchisees. At their core, these technologies all rely on data.

Bird & Bird privacy and data protection associate, Gabe Maldoff, has been selected to join the Arbitration Panel for the EU-US Privacy Shield framework. Members of the Arbitration Panel are selected jointly by the US Department of Commerce and the European Commission on the basis of their expertise in EU and US privacy and data protection laws.

International law firm Bird & Bird advised long term client Darktrace, a machine-learning cybersecurity company, on its $75 million Series D fundraise led by Insight Venture Partners, with existing investors Summit Partners, KKR and TenEleven Ventures also participating.

Bird & Bird's Tech & Comms Group are delighted to invite you to our flagship event of the year, our Annual TechLaw Day. We will focus on the legal and commercial issues associated with new and developing areas of technology.

As of 1 January 2016, the former "College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens" (CBP) will be rebranded into the "Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens". Not just a change of name for the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA), but also with the ability to impose substantially higher fines for a broader range of violations of the Dutch Data Protection Act. Another important change is the introduction of various data breach obligations into the Act, including the obligation to notify such breaches to the DPA and affected individuals.